THE Coalition Government’s anti-garden grabbing policy has failed to stop the building of five small houses behind properties lining a leafy suburban road in Moseley.

Terraced homes can now be built behind 5-7 Park Hill in Moseley despite vehement opposition from neighbours and the new Government’s moves to end garden grabbing earlier this summer following a majority vote of the city’s planning committee.

The plan was ushered through, partly because the garden had been used as a builder’s yard without planning consent for so long that the garden claim could not have been defended at court.

Planning committee member Keith Linnecor (Lab, Oscott), who opposed the plan, said: “We have praised the Government for opposing garden grabbing because it is one thing they have got right.

“It is a shame that the complexity of planning regulations they do not do what they are trying to achieve.

“The council failed some years ago to deal with the builder’s yard, even though the residents complained, and that has led to this situation.”

The committee was told that according to planning regulations they could not treat it as a garden, and even in that case the new changes did not automatically prevent building on gardens. Residents had complained that the small terraced homes were out of keeping with Park Hill which is mainly large semi and detached houses.